Mule drives are typically used in mowers to transmit power from engines having substantially horizontal output shafts to one or more cutters having substantially vertical driven shafts. Such mule drives may include a pair of idler pulleys located between an output pulley coupled to the horizontal output shaft of the engine and a driven pulley coupled to the cutter. The idler pulleys usually rotate about respective axes that are transverse to the horizontal output shaft. As a result, the idler pulleys may re-direct a continuous belt from a substantially vertical belt orientation to a substantially horizontal belt orientation.